Chapter 132 – On the Run

Song Changfeng took Wan Xiaogang home, then parked the car nearby and headed to the house of Old Man Zhang, the first person to report seeing the Wildman, bringing Aofeng along with him.

When they arrived, Old Man Zhang was sitting in the shade by his door, weaving a basket. His large, calloused hands moved up and down, and the basket gradually took shape, looking quite impressive. Aofeng stared at him, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes. His grandmother used to weave baskets too, and after finishing one, she’d take it to the street to trade for a few coins to buy him snacks.

Perhaps sensing someone watching him, Old Man Zhang looked up. The first thing he saw was Aofeng, and he exclaimed in surprise, “Whoa, what a big dog!” You couldn’t blame him for being shocked. Even if you tied two of the village’s mutts together, they still wouldn’t be as big as Aofeng. Aofeng wagged his tail in greeting, prompting another gasp from Old Man Zhang.

“Young man, who are you looking for?” After getting a good look, Old Man Zhang turned his gaze to Song Changfeng, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes.

Song Changfeng wasn’t in uniform, just wearing a plain shirt. But the way he stood, upright and composed, the sharpness in his features, and the alert, focused look in his eyes all made it clear to Old Man Zhang that this young man wasn’t ordinary.

“No one in particular, just wandering around. Your craftsmanship is really something. That basket looks great, sturdy too,” Song Changfeng said, not holding back on the compliments.

Old Man Zhang grinned and replied, “Young man, you’ve got a good eye. My basket-weaving skills are among the best in the village. Take care of it, and it’ll last you several years, no problem.”

Seeing how cheerful he looked, Song Changfeng took the opportunity to pull over a small stool and sat down across from him, looking genuinely interested.

Old Man Zhang was a lonely old man. Most folks didn’t have the time to stop by and chat. This young man might be a stranger, but he seemed like a decent sort. Even the big dog he brought along was well-behaved, sitting quietly without wandering off. Having decided Song Changfeng was no threat, Old Man Zhang started chatting. He went on about how to choose materials for basket weaving, how to make them more durable, and everything in between.

Song Changfeng chimed in from time to time with a few admiring comments, slipping in the occasional subtle flattery. Once the mood was right, he finally brought up the real reason for his visit.

“You just mentioned the basket materials came from the mountain out back. But I heard there are Wildmen up there. Aren’t you afraid to go?” Song Changfeng lowered his voice, looking concerned.

Old Man Zhang’s expression grew uneasy. Ever since his offhand comment had caused a stir, the village officials had taken turns visiting him, warning him not to spread baseless rumors. Now this young man was bringing it up again, making him realize just how much trouble his careless words had caused.

“No, no Wildmen. What would a thing like that be doing here? Our mountain’s not even that big. Nonsense,” Old Man Zhang muttered as he kept weaving, clearly reluctant to continue the conversation.

But Song Changfeng played dumb, acting completely oblivious and said with certainty, “Come on, don’t be like that. I’ve seen the video online. Big dark shape, definitely a Wildman, right?” As he spoke, he pulled up the video and held it out for Old Man Zhang to see.

Old Man Zhang didn’t have a smartphone. He’d only ever seen others watching videos. Curious, he took a look. One glance turned into watching the whole thing. He’d had doubts before watching, but afterward, his face twisted into a complicated expression.

“This isn’t even our village. I’ve never seen that place in the video. And those people they said they interviewed from our village? Never seen them before. It’s all nonsense,” Old Man Zhang said angrily, then sighed with guilt. “Sigh, if I hadn’t been drinking and talking nonsense that day, I wouldn’t have dragged our whole village into this mess.”

Song Changfeng feigned confusion. “Uncle, what do you mean by that?”

Old Man Zhang let out a long sigh and said, “Back when Xiaogang’s wife went missing, everyone was speculating. Some said she ran off, others thought she fell into a ravine. And me, like an idiot, I just blurted out that maybe the Wildman took her. Then everyone started asking questions. I… I got carried away and brought up something that happened over twenty years ago. But the truth is, the killer was caught two years after that incident. I don’t even know what I was thinking. Just spouted a bunch of nonsense.”

Seeing how regretful he looked, Song Changfeng offered a few words of comfort before asking, “But what made you suddenly think of something from over twenty years ago?”

Old Man Zhang sighed again. “It was Chunsheng’s wife. I was drinking at the house next door, and she came by for a chat. Somehow we started talking about Hongling. She was the girl who was killed in the mountains twenty years ago. Later, when I went back and heard them talking about Xiaogang’s wife, I blurted it out without thinking. It’s this old habit of mine. Give me a bit of alcohol and my mouth just runs wild!”

“Are you talking about Chunsheng’s wife? Is her name Zhao Guilan?” Song Changfeng asked.

Old Man Zhang hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, her name’s Guilan. But whether her last name is Zhao or something else, I forget. There are a few women named Guilan in the village.”

It had to be Zhao Guilan! As expected, Song Changfeng thought. He had suspected something fishy from the start. The person had just gone missing, and there were no leads at all. So how did things suddenly connect to something that happened over twenty years ago? Everyone in the village knew Old Man Zhang had a habit of rambling nonsense after drinking. Zhao Guilan had deliberately brought up the old incident while visiting, subtly planting the idea in his head. That way, he’d link the two events and blurt it out himself, muddying the waters. Then she could steer the investigation in that direction.

What she didn’t expect was that once those words were posted online, they drew public attention and made the police take this seemingly ordinary missing person case very seriously. Over the past few days, officers had been investigating in the village and even installed surveillance cameras on the roads leading out. She didn’t dare make any rash moves, so she left the body hidden in the haystack, too afraid to deal with it.

Of course, all of this was just his speculation. The real truth still needed further investigation.

Back at the police station, Song Changfeng reported his findings to Chief Zhang. Chief Zhang also believed Zhao Guilan was highly suspicious, but they currently lacked solid evidence. The Technical Department was still working on recovering chat logs. Once they had concrete proof, they could take action. For now, the officers stationed in Jingshan Village were closely monitoring Zhao Guilan’s movements.

Just then, one of the investigation teams returned. They had gone to look into Peng Laosan, the man who delivered supplies to the village store on the sixth. He hadn’t gone home until after 5 p.m. that day. According to Peng Laosan himself, the reason he stayed so late was because he’d gone to see his lover. She was a widow in the village. Both of them were single and could have been together openly, but the widow’s child didn’t approve. Since the kid was in the critical third year of middle school, they had to keep their relationship under wraps.

The officers took a blood sample from Peng Laosan for testing and called the officers monitoring the village surveillance to send two people to the widow’s house to verify his story. Not long after, word came back that the widow had confirmed it. They had indeed been together the whole time that day. That basically cleared Peng Laosan of suspicion, though they would still run a DNA comparison. After all, without forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts alone weren’t entirely reliable.

Just as that team returned, another group came back as well. They had gone to investigate Zhang Xing, the man who often came to the village to fish. When they arrived, Zhang Xing was happily loading gear into his trunk. A fishing buddy had just told him about a fantastic new wild fishing spot, supposedly so good that half a day’s fishing could fill a whole bucket.

When he saw the police approaching, Zhang Xing panicked and quickly tried to hide a bag behind his back. That made the officers suspicious. They immediately ordered him to put the bag on the ground and squat down with his hands on his head.

Looking miserable, Zhang Xing placed the bag on the ground, squatted beside his car, and said in a trembling voice, “Officers, come on, isn’t this a bit much? I was just planning to use some loaches as bait. Did it really need this many of you?”

The officers exchanged looks. One of them stepped forward and opened the bag. Sure enough, it was full of wriggling, live loaches.

A false alarm. The tense atmosphere instantly eased. When they asked about what happened on the sixth, Zhang Xing perked up.

“I remember that day! I caught a fish that weighed twenty-two jin¹, seven liang, and three qian. I hadn’t caught a single scale before that and thought I was going home empty-handed. But then, boom, the big one hit. It was the first time I ever caught a fish that big. I even thought about driving around the village a few more times to show it off. But wouldn’t you know it, not a single person came over to ask about it. Weird, right?” As he recalled that day, Zhang Xing’s face lit up with pride, though he also looked a little disappointed that no one had shared in his moment of glory.

The officers: “…”

What could they even say? To a die-hard fisherman, nothing mattered more than the catch.

They calmed down and explained the situation to Zhang Xing. He froze, then after a while said, “No wonder no one cared about my fish.”

The officers: “…”

“Wait a minute! You’re not thinking I did it, are you? I swear I didn’t! I was fishing the whole time that day, didn’t even move from my spot. I even ate my meals right there! If you don’t believe me, I can show you.” As he spoke, Zhang Xing pulled out his phone and opened a livestream replay. Turns out, he’d been streaming his fishing session the entire time. The stream lasted seven to eight hours, and in the footage, he never left his spot, either watching his rod intently or chatting with viewers in the stream.

The police copied the livestream replay, but they still collected a blood sample from Zhang Xing. Since they were already there, it was better to run a comparison for peace of mind.

“So that means, the only person whose situation is still unclear is this Zhu Qiang? Wait, that doesn’t make sense. Isn’t Zhu Qiang Zhao Guilan’s nephew? Why don’t they have the same last name?” Bureau Chief Zhang rubbed his chin, looking puzzled.

“It’s like this. Zhao Guilan’s father married into the family, so all the kids took their mother’s surname. When it came to the next generation, after both of the Zhao elders passed away, and Zhao Guilan’s father had made some money, he had his eldest grandson take the Zhu surname. The rest still go by Zhao.” The officer clearly knew the family situation well and answered immediately when Bureau Chief Zhang asked.

Bureau Chief Zhang shook his head. That kind of thing was a bit unorthodox. But it was their family business, nothing worth arguing over. As long as it was confirmed that Zhu Qiang was Zhao Guilan’s nephew, that was enough.

They waited until nightfall. By the time the DNA comparisons for Peng Laosan and Zhang Xing came back, the other team of officers still hadn’t returned.

“The DNA results for Peng Laosan and Zhang Xing don’t match the samples taken from Liu Cuiping’s body. We can basically rule them out as suspects. Now the focus is on Zhu Qiang. Have we gotten in touch with Xiao Wang’s team? Why aren’t they back yet?” Bureau Chief Zhang frowned. Even though Zhu Qiang’s home was in another county, it wasn’t that far. Why was it taking so long?

“We spoke with them two hours ago. They said they were still waiting for Zhu Qiang to come home. I just tried calling again, but no one picked up.”

“Keep calling. Call every one of them. If no one answers, then something’s definitely happened!” Bureau Chief Zhang’s expression turned serious.

Fortunately, one of the officers’ phones was soon answered.

“Xiao Chen, where are you guys? Still haven’t found Zhu Qiang?”

“No, we went to his house and waited all afternoon, but he never came back. His family said they didn’t know where he went. I told them to call him, but they couldn’t get through either. Then, about fifteen minutes ago, Zhu Qiang finally came back. But somehow, his guard was up. We didn’t even park our car near the house, but he still ran off before he even stepped inside. We’ve been chasing him since, but it’s pitch dark and we don’t know the area well, so he got away!” Xiao Chen was panting heavily, clearly exhausted.

Bureau Chief Zhang took the phone and said, “Head back to the Zhao house and keep an eye on his family. I’ll call Deputy Chief Fu in the neighboring county right now and have him deploy officers to guard all the exits. We can’t let Zhu Qiang escape!”

Translator’s Notes